Randy Suits

I was watching an old movie yesterday about a seaman who owned a tall ship and taught students in the summer how to live at sea and perform all the duties required to sail a ship on the high seas. As the ship sailed by Cuba, they were accosted by a cuban coast guard ship. The young Cuban Captain in anger smashed their on deck compass and said, “see how well you can navigate the ocean with no compass”. The captain replied, “a true seaman doesn’t need a compass to sail the seas.” He was a seasoned sailor who could use a sextant to sight the north star to determine lattitude and longitude. The north star has long been the location in the heavens from which navigators across the globe could pin point their northern hemisphere location. As the world was charted, known destinations were charted by the recorded lattitude and longitude of their location in relation to the north star. The north star always held the exact same position at the end of the handle of the little dipper. The northern axis of the earth points directly toward the North Star. This means that when you are observing this star you are facing true north toward the North Pole. We also call the North Star the Polestar or Polaris. This lodestar lines up with the celestial sphere almost perfectly, so that all other stars appear to rotate around it. Simply by finding the North Star travelers are able to determine all the points of the compass: westward would be on your left, eastward to the right, and southward in back of you. In the same manner, Our Lord God is a North Star for it is He to whom we look for direction when we are lost (confused, uncertain or inundated with the troubles and cares of this world) or intent upon staying on course with His plans for our lives. Jesus said, “I am the way the truth and the life: no man comes to the Father, but by me.” Like the seaman with the broken compass who knew to read his position from the North star, we know that when we chart our daily course upon Christ and His Word, we shall always arrive safely at our charted destination. Has He not called us to follow Him and faithfully trust His direction? Like the seamen looking for the north star, we are looking to Christ our captain and brother to lead us to life eternal.

Looking to Christ our North Star for direction,Kochany